Farmers’ use of fundamental knowledge to re-design their cropping systems: situated contextualisation processes

Highlights• We studied how different knowledge sources were combined by farmers re-designing cropping systems.• Fundamental knowledge was useful to the re-design process when articulated to farmers’ actions.• 4 patterns linking fundamental knowledge to farmers’ action were identified.• A situated contextualisation process generates new knowledge about a farmer’s own agro-ecosystem.• The causality within systemic understanding built by farmers is generated in a situated process.